[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Dong-hoon] The police, conducting an internal investigation into allegations of a sloppy investigation regarding Vice Minister of Justice Lee Yong-gu's 'assault on a taxi driver,' announced that they are performing digital forensics on the vice minister's mobile phone and verifying about 7,000 call records of related individuals.
Jang Ha-yeon, Commissioner of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, stated at a press conference held on the 12th at the Seoul Police Agency in Naejadong, Jongno-gu, Seoul, "The number of suspects and investigation targets related to the vice minister has increased from 42 to over 50," adding, "The number of investigation targets increased due to the need to verify call counterparts, and so far, we have completed forensics on about 20 devices, including the vice minister's mobile phone, other mobile phones, and PCs."
He continued, "Through this, we are verifying about 7,000 call records," and "Since we need to confirm the purpose of the calls and other details, it is taking some time."
The vice minister assaulted a taxi driver who woke him up while intoxicated in front of his apartment in Seocho-gu, Seoul, around 11:40 p.m. on November 6 last year. However, the police did not book the vice minister and closed the case as an internal investigation.
During the process, it was revealed that the investigating officer in charge said he would "pretend not to have seen" the black box footage shown by the taxi driver, which sparked controversy over a sloppy investigation. Consequently, the police formed a joint fact-finding team combining the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's audit and investigation units and launched an investigation.
The fact-finding team recently booked Sergeant A of the Seocho Police Station in Seoul, who was the investigator at the time, on charges of special dereliction of duty under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes and is currently investigating.
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